thoughtfulBy page two, I was ready to fling the book across the room. Why? Because the author had chosen to scramble the spelling of a common-to-the-genre word in a way that made it look not only pretentious, but difficult to read. This is a personal bug-a-boo of mine, since I really do feel that spelling was standardized for a reason, and while I managed to soldier through, it colored my ability to sink into the text for several chapters.
(As an aside, seriously: not all words become more interesting and mysterious when spelled with a vestigial "y." The worst example I've ever seen was in a YA series full of "mermyds," and the fact that I made it through all three volumes is a testament to the power of raw stubborn.)
One reader of Rosemary and Rue posted a lengthy, positive review, more than half of which was taken up by complaints about the pronunciation guide. Specifically, I didn't write down the correct pronunciation of "Kitsune." It's a fair cop—if you pronounce the word as written in the pronunciation guide, you'll be saying it wrong—and it's been corrected for A Local Habitation, but it was, for this person, as bad as if I'd spelled Toby's name "Aughtcober" and then claimed it was pronounced just like the month. Bug-a-boos for all!
Kate recently delivered a long and eloquent diatribe on "back cover buzz-word bingo," which I really wish I'd had a video camera running for, because it was awesome. The summation is that she watches the back covers of books for certain "buzz-words," and, if the book works up to a magical bingo score, she doesn't read it. I do something similar with bad horror movies, since there are specific buzz-words that mean "soft core porn" and "gratuitous torture," and those really aren't what I'm watching the movie to see.
So what are your bug-a-boos? Terribly twisted spelling? Pronunciations that you don't agree with? Buzz-words oozing off the back cover and getting all over your shoes? How about heroines with ruby hair and emerald eyes who aren't appearing in an Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld fanfic epic? Inquiring blondes want to know!
November 3 2009, 16:14:36 UTC 7 years ago
Also. Moon phases. I usually spend a week teaching college students the basics of celestial coordinates and the phase of the moon. This means I tend to notice when you have your new moon rise at midnight, or a crescent and full moon near one another in the sky. (Yes, for some reason, I can suspend disbelief long enough to read most SF with far worse science, but I'll bitch about moon phases.)
The fact that hero and heroine cannot be in a room together without getting distracted by sexy times. Or, really, the hero and heroine being attracted by one another and the narration* asserting this is True Love when all I see is 'They think the other one is sex on legs and fun in bed'.
I also hate the trend of showing the female protagonist from the chin down on covers. Mostly because all of them start to look alike, AND that I dislike what it says about the main character to not have her face visible, even in the sort of skulking in the shadows way.
I'm beginning to hate the trend of giving series books very similar names. I don't mind Jim Butcher's Dresden Files (all the books until the upcoming one have two word titles, often with a bit of a play on words), but I nearly missed the most recent book of Michelle Sagara because I confused Cast in Silence with Cast in Shadow, and I once had to run back to a bookstore to exchange Green Mars for Blue Mars. (Or maybe the other way around.)
* Assuming it is not the hero or heroine narrating, in which case, I can just add 'confuses infatuation with love' to character traits.
November 3 2009, 17:21:34 UTC 7 years ago
I get it about the moon phase—I have the exact same reaction to bad virology or bad animal physiology. I can suspend my disbelief as long as you're not messing with things your universe doesn't actually need to mess with. In Toby's world, the Summerlands have weird astrological behaviors, and Earth doesn't.
Apparently the whole "no face on the cover" thing is meant to allow you to further project yourself onto the heroine. Since I have a head, I find this difficult.
On the titles thing, yes, yes, a thousand times yes. I stopped reading Sookie Stackhouse because I honestly couldn't tell you where I left off.